North Macedonia: Clashes in the center of Skopje between protesters and police over the agreement with Bulgaria

Clashes broke out last night in front of the Parliament of North Macedonia between demonstrators, who are protesting against the EU’s proposal to conclude an agreement between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, and the police.

A few thousand protesters gathered – for the fourth night in a row – first in front of the government building in Skopje and then moved towards the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where they threw objects, causing damage to the main entrance of the building. The protesters then arrived in front of the Parliament building, in the center of Skopje, where a group of masked men breached the protective metal railings and attacked the deployed police forces with stones and smoke bombs. A heavy police force pushed back the masked protesters just before midnight and arrested 11 of them.

As the police announced, 47 police officers were injured in the incidents, 11 of them seriously.

The President of the Republic of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, who was due to give an interview on Tuesday night to a private Skopje television station based near the Parliament building, canceled his participation due to security reasons, his Office announced.

Dimitar Kovacevsky’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SDSM) condemned the “violent demonstrations”, accusing the largest opposition party VMRO-DPMNE and the ultra-nationalist pro-Russian Left party of being behind them, of “aiming at destabilizing the country” and serving the interests of specific centers that do not want North Macedonia to become a member of the European Union”.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

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